Sparta And Athens Similarities

Imagine you are a citizen of ancient Greece, where would you live? Strong Sparta or artistic Athens? Athens and Sparta were both powerful civilizations seen as utopias by their people. These city- states had a plethora of contrasting characteristics, with few similarities. Athens’ and Sparta’s government and social standards may be polar opposites but they come from the same cultural origin, Greece.
Both civilizations had undeniably strong governments, however the ruled their citizens on opposite ends of the spectrum. Athens created a democracy, the first ever in the world. It became an entirely new environment where the people (adult men) got to rule their city. They voted on almost all matters and all decision making was fair. Athenians …show more content…
Whether that was voting or being chosen to be in office, all male citizens contributed to their government. It was so enforced that if someone did not show up to hear a politician 's speech or vote, they would be fined. Athenian people could not only vote in who they liked, but vote out who they opposed. This was called ostracizing and if an individual was becoming too powerful they could vote to exile that person from athens for ten years. Male athenian people had the right to voice their opinions and social class could not interfere with merit and earning the right to become a politician. On the other hand Sparta was much more of an oligarchy, where the citizens were ruled with an iron fist. Uniquely Sparta had two kings and then a council of twenty eight members of the highest social class, they kept the king’s power limited. People of lower class and education had no say and just had to do as told. Sparta’s government had one goal in mind and that was to protect their utopia. Basically …show more content…
Most significantly they share their religion in common. The greek gods and goddesses are infamously known for wreaking havoc on the human world or bringing order to it. There are three main gods, Zeus, god of the skies and a father figure, Poseidon, god of the seas, and Hades, god of the underworld. Greeks believed that the gods were in charge of many naturally occurring events that they couldn’t explain. This lead to having similar morals and myths passed down through generations. It was valued to be smart and brave, a hero. Athens is named after the greek god Athena who protects and represents Athens which fits do to their cunning strategy and wisdom. Because of their devotion and admiration for Athena they built the Parthenon, a huge temple on top of the acropolis of the city. This magnificent structure can still be seen today. It is believed that Athena also represented Sparta due to their warlike society and how they value training your mind and body. There is not as much record left to tell us about the everyday lives of Spartans as there is Athens, but we know that dance was important to them. They believed it could help make a warrior more deft on his feet in combat. So it could be presumed that before or after a battle there would be a festival of dance.It’s likely that the spartan people also worshiped their patroning goddess, Athena during these small festivals. Conveniently enough they also